A survey released today by the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds that 57% of U.S. workers surveyed “reported less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments excluding their homes,” The Journal reports. The survey “also found that 28% of Americans have no confidence they will have enough money to retire comfortably — the highest level in the study's 23-year history.”

On the corporate side, The Journal says another recent report, by the Society of Actuaries, found that rising life expectancies “could add as much as $97 billion to corporate pension liabilities in coming years, an increase of up to 5%.”

Simply put, as Americans live longer, “the extended life spans will make it tougher for workers trying to stretch retirement savings and put additional strains on pension plans.”

The Journal says Akron-based Goodyear “cited the growth in the life expectancy for its plan's beneficiaries as one reason its global pension-funding gap widened to $3.5 billion last year from $3.1 billion in 2011.” A Goodyear spokesman tells the newspaper that the tiremaker made the mortality adjustment "because we saw an increase in (the) actual longevity of our participants."

The story notes that U.S. pension obligations for all publicly traded U.S. companies totaled $1.93 trillion at the end of 2012, up from $1.60 trillion in 2008, according to benefits firm Mercer.

Entrepreneur magazine spotlights three companies, including Mayfield Village-based auto insurer Progressive Corp., that are leaders in offering “healthy living initiatives” that benefit both the employer and the employee.

“These amenities show Progressive's commitment to employees and their daily desire to be productive both in work and life," says Pamela Sraeel, the company's senior manager of benefit services.

Ms. Sraeel tells the website that making a healthy lifestyle more convenient and affordable for employees has resulted in a more motivated and less stressed staff.

"When employees are healthy, they feel good. They innovate, solve problems and take initiative, which is imperative in a tough global marketplace," she says.

Among the other companies highlighted, social media giant Twitter offers onsite yoga, Pilates, Wing Chun Kung Fu and CrossFit classes. Onsite massages and acupuncture sessions also are available for a fee.

Telus, the Canadian phone company, has internal fitness facilities with cardio equipment, weight rooms and group fitness classes, on-site massage and reflexology practitioners, active living challenges and mental health support.

Janet Crowe, director of wellness and work-life solutions at Telus, says wellness initiatives are possible no matter the size of a company; she encourages small businesses to begin by asking employees what initiatives would help them.

Parker Hannifin, the biggest manufacturer of motion and control devices, is seeking to expand into the medical industry with the product. The company has an exclusive licensing agreement with Vanderbilt University for the exoskeleton technology, which allows people with severe spinal cord injury to walk and enhances rehabilitation for people who have suffered a stroke.

Bloomberg says such commercial exoskeletons are moving beyond “just echoes of Hollywood's take on 'Iron Man's' bulletproof garb and the armor that” science fiction writer Robert Heinlein envisioned for his futuristic warriors in works such as “Starship Troopers.”

The story notes that Parker's Indego model will go on sale in 2014 at a price the company says is competitive with a competitor's 52,000-euro ($67,230) unit.

The new post on Forbes.com from NorTech CEO Rebecca O. Bagley offers three key points driven home by last week's NorTech Innovation Awards. (And if you missed the awards, Crain's technology reporter Chuck Soder has a good summary here.)

Those three important takeaways: companies need to push past conventional wisdom that causes them to think in a box; businesses need to be aware their customers don't always know what they want; and paying too much attention to traditional business metrics inhibits companies from making breakthroughs.

“One company that understands these concepts well” she writes, is Vitamix, the high-end blender maker whose president and CEO, Jodi Berg, gave the keynote address at the awards.

“Berg understands that innovation is not a one-time thing,” Ms. Bagley writes. “Whether you are part of a startup company or one that's several generations old, you have to continue to reach above and beyond what you have done before to stay relevant. In other words: innovate or lose.”

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